Canon's new Arizona 135GT hits Australian shores

The latest member of the fifth generation wide format Arizona printer series has arrived in Australia this week, with the new Arizona 135 GT using the same core technology of its mid-volume siblings and VariaDot printing technology. 

It is launched locally by Canon Production Printing Australia which says it is designed for "outstanding productivity, application versatility and image quality." 

Arizona is the world's biggest selling flatbed printer series, and according to Craig Nethercott, managing director, Canon Production Printing Australia, there are 7,500 installations of Arizona printers worldwide.

He said, "In bringing the Arizona 135 GT to market, we’re looking to make the ideal flatbed platform for printing multiple applications on both rigid and flexible media available to the display graphics and signage market,” he said, confident that the new printer will prove to be as popular as its predecessors.

The Arizona 135 GT VariaDot greyscale printing technology can handle substrates of up to 125 x 250cm in size and up to 50.8mm thick and to print at speeds of up to 34.2sqm per hour.

Tinashe Muchecheterwa, product manager, large format graphics, Canon Production Printing Australia, said, “VariaDot produces droplets in different sizes to give finer details, beautifully smooth quartertones, with greatly reduced graininess, smoother gradients from the highlight areas to the mid-tones, and uniform solid colours."

VariaDot technology's variable drop sizes range from 6 to 30 picolitres, and Canon claims the the Arizona 135 GT printing process consumes as much as 50 per cent less ink than regular flatbed printers, which says the company, makes the printer environmentally and economically attractive. The device’s environmental credentials also include the use of UL Greenguard Gold certified low-emmission inks for indoor applications.

Muchecheterwa also points out that the Arizona 135’s accurate print registration helps users avoid errors, and allows for last-minute adjustments to be made at the printer.

“Its easy-to-use functionality includes nesting, batching of complex jobs, step and repeat, mirroring and re-assignment of print modes,” he said.

The Arizona 135 GT incorporates a number of service features to maximise availability, such as Automated Maintenance System which provides hands-free printhead maintenance and selectively restores nozzle function in seconds, and On Remote Service which the user to authorise remote assistance by experienced service technicians.

It features low-energy consumption as a result of its Instant-On functionality and has minimal warm-up time due to its LED lamps, and includes a vast range of durable applications, which are achievable on rigid or flexible media with standard or porous surfaces.

The Arizona Static Suppression Kit also enables the Arizona 135 GT to print on hard plastic materials, such as acrylic, polycarbonate and styrene, while the Arizona Classic high-pressure vacuum system provides extremely reliable media hold- down during printing, even for warped rigid media.

More opportunities are accessible with the flatbed printer’s field-upgradeable Roll Media Option. This allows users to produce flexible media applications up to 2.2m wide, including thin and heat-sensitive media, and to run roll-to-roll jobs unattended overnight.